beats & bytes, philosophy & games, code & culture

Here’s another Kaossilator 2 Jam. Like the others, it has no edits or post-processing, just one take.

I think this is a satisfying constraint because the Kaossilator 2 is really an instrument as opposed to a “workstation” or any other kind of production tool. It Can’t really be said to support “editing”, so while it does enable “composition” through successively capturing loops, and while it has some drum patterns and a gate arpeggiator which enable beat-precise notes and drum sounds, it is generally unforgiving of mistakes (no undo) and its limits are regarded as severe, for example, the loop length maxes out at 8 beats, ruling out most chord-progression style jams.

So freestyling is a good way to get the visceral sound qualities but also to avoid the trap of endless tweaking and perfecting note position, effects chains and tune composition that a full DAW seems to invite.

Unfortunately the video and audio are slightly out of sync which is super annoying considering I captured them together, it seems they only diverged after Youtube’s video processing step. I’ll have to look into that because video and audio sync has been a persistent challenge for me.

Make your own music! One thing I’m conscious of these days is how much of my time is spent consuming what other people make compared to the time I spend making my own stuff. If I exclude “the day job” which is actually making stuff for other people in exchange for money, I wonder what the percentage of each really is.

So here’s a Kaossilator Jam I just made, Kitchen Table Techno. Strictly speaking, it’s not really techno… more of a megamix maybe, but it’s definitely a kitchen table and it was all made in one sitting with no edits on the little Kaossilator 2. Some disapprovingly call it a toy, but I call it a toy and fully approve 🙂

Please let me know what you think of it in the comments.

So much of modern western civilisation focuses on the economics of mass consumption, but I prefer to focus on the economics of mass creation! This doesn’t mean I think we should all be subsistence hermits, but what is a healthy ratio?

Making stuff expands your skills of self-sufficiency and it adds value to the world. Making is a form of discovery and a path to mastery.

The maker movement is a trend that picks up the trail of DIY Culture and I see it as a good example of a restorative and enriching trend in the world today. It’s the most literal form of productive culture I know.

As one of my heroes, Alan Kay, says, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”.